March Madness weekend in Philly. Mark picked up Ezra, then me at the airport and we drove in to our AirBnB on South Street. We walked up South St. for a while - first stopping at a "Montreal-style" bagel place (that Mark and Ezra refuted) so Ezra and I could get something for lunch. Mark grabbed a cheesesteak from another spot and joined us.

We then went looking for a grocery store with little luck. Lots of convenience/mini-markets. A guy we asked for directions (Jack) pointed us towards an outdoor market area (after we helped him look for his lost credit card). We grabbed some fruit and veggies (Ezra bought a ridiculously enormous carrot), then grabbed other stuff piecemeal before finding out we were a block from Whole Foods.

We got back to the place and got set for the first games while waited for Ben to arrive. Villanova handled Michigan but Gonzaga got beat by Arkansas which we didn't see coming. Ben arrived and we ordered pretty good pizza (Ezra got some greek food) and settled in to watch Duke edge out Texas Tech and Houston surprise Arizona. Two #1's gone on the first night!

Slept in Friday, went back to the bagel place, played a little basketball at a nearby park, got some vegan donuts (yum!) and walked to Reading Market for cheesesteaks. Then back to the place to shower and nap. A long walk to a "sports bar" that promised games with sound. We were skeptical, but it panned out. We were the oldest people in the bar, by far.

We watched St. Peter's upset Purdue and Kansas beat Providence. St. Peter's bet on the money line offset several other losses (overs are killing us - yet we still bet them). We walked home to catch the second round of games - UNC over UCLA and Miami over Iowa St.

Saturday was kinda nasty and rainy. We all went on short runs (Ben got a selfie with UNC lumberjack Brady Manik) and we bet and watched the UConn/Indiana women's game. I will always root for UConn, but with Nadia at IU I've started following the Hoosiers, so I was rooting for a good match-up. Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a game and UConn pulled away to win easily.

We headed over to the casino to watch the games with the hope of sneaking in a little blackjack. Ez and I found a table with about 20 minutes before game time and we rattled off an epic streak. The dealer dealt herself a blackjack first hand, but then I only lost one other hand. Ez did well, too. We stuck for the first hand of a new shoe, but walked away - him up $275; me up $400. Probably the best blackjack haul I've had in 25 years! Which was thankful, because sports bets continued to go south. Villanova pulled through again over Houston, but Duke had little trouble with Arkansas.

Sunday morning was cold, but we wanted to get another round of basketball in, so we trekked to a new park with better courts (and a toddler's pinata party). Mark and Ben killed us in the first game of two on two, because I missed all of my shots and I couldn't guard Ben. We switched it up and I started hitting in game 2, so we split.

We zipped back to the place (though I stopped at a diner to do the NY Times crossword puzzle and satisfy my pancake, egg and turkey sausage craving), showered and headed over to the area where all of the arenas are. We had made a reservation for a table at their big sports bar. It was a great set up - food, drink, huge TVs with sound, but the games sucked. Kansas killed Miami and UNC crushed St. Peters. There was a woman there with her nephew who engaged us in this small betting game. I was convinced she was trying to scam us (mighta been a little gummy paranoia), but the boys were all in. Turned out she was legit. We stayed at the bar for a little bit to stretch out what was left of the trip, but soon went back and started packing. I Uber-ed to the airport at 6am.